There he met many European exiles and the city's avant-garde.[1] In 1940, he petitioned the Emergency Rescue Committee (ERC) to secure the release of his father from internment.[1] The ERC secured his release in 1941 and Max Ernst arrived in New York from Nazi occupied France.[1] In 1944, unknown to Jimmy, his mother was sent to Auschwitz concentration camp from Drancy, a detention camp near Paris.[1] She did not survive.[1]

Ernst married Edith Dallas Bauman Brody (known as Dallas), a talent scout for Warner Brothers, on January 3, 1947.[3] They had two children, Amy Louise (1953) and Eric Max (1956).[4] His son Eric Ernst and his daughter Amy Ernst are both artists.[citation needed]

His memoirs, A Not-So-Still Life dealing with his youth and early years in America were published shortly before his death in 1984.[1][5] Dallas Ernst established the Jimmy Ernst Award in memory of her husband. The award of $5,000 is given to a painter or sculptor "whose lifetime contribution to his or her vision has been both consistent and dedicated".[6] The American Academy of Arts and Letters has presented the award annually since 1990.[6]